I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for receiving a shared control channel.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, and Single-Carrier FDMA systems.
A communication system typically utilizes various control channels to support data transmission on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. For example, the terminals may send signaling on the reverse link to request for data transmission on one or both links, to report channel conditions, to request handoff to stronger base stations, and so on. The signaling sent by the terminals, although beneficial, represents overhead in the system.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to efficiently send and receive signaling in a communication system.